Popularity and success is driving the increase of public charter schools in Baltimore. Once completed, the city will have 31 public charter school programs operating in the district.

City Neighbors Charter School in northeast Baltimore opened 10 years ago. It was one of the first to open and to expand.

Now, four new charter schools are being added to the list. Among them include the Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys and the Lillie May Carroll Jackson Charter School for Girls. They're just two of three new single-gender schools, and Alison Perkins, the head of the district's Office of New Initiatives, said it's not a coincidence.

"We've seen demand for those schools. We, in the past couple of years, have had to close a couple of schools that weren't working very well in terms of the outcomes for students, but parents were concerned about that because they really valued that option," Perkins said.

Govans Elementary School will also become a charter campus in the fall along with the new Banneker-Blake Academy, which will have a science, technology, education and math focus with an emphasis on the arts.

"It helps the young people learn, it helps with their math, it helps them with their literature, their skills so that (in) every part of the school, even though its divided into STEM, the curriculum is infused with art," said Carl Stokes, with the Banneker-Blake Academy.

A contract school called Bard High for Early College is also opening in the fall.

Inner Harbor East Academy for Young Scholars is being forced to close this year. Students at the troubled school were moved midyear, right before the city pulled the contract of its operators.

The Board of School Commissioners may approve an additional five schools in the 2016-17 academic year.